Zoltán Klement, biologist and member of HAS, states that all living things including plants, have developed defense mechanisms that inhibit disease-causing micro-organisms. Plants have evolved both specific and non-specific hypersensitive defense mechanisms similar to the immune systems of animals. In disease-resistant plants the recognition of pathogens and the development of defense mechanisms are quick, but in susceptible plants lacking defense reactions, this recognition is delayed, thus enabling the pathogens to multiply which eventually cause disease.

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